Sustainability

National diplomats have endorsed a new European law on packaging waste, including provisions that would hold overseas producers to EU environmental standards on plastic recycling at the risk of losing market access.

European Commission trade officials had taken the unusual step of lobbying governments directly to reject a so-called mirror clause in the draft law, warning of a serious potential impact on international commerce and diplomatic complications.

EVERY CAN COUNTS has established a U.S. chapter to expand its global movement to inspire, encourage, and empower more people to recycle aluminum beverage cans. The U.S. chapter joins chapters in 20 other countries.

EVERY CAN COUNTS U.S. is a partnership between aluminum beverage can manufacturers (Ardagh Metal Packaging, CANPACK, Crown Holdings, and Envases) and aluminum suppliers (Constellium, Kaiser Aluminum, Novelis, and Tri-Arrows Aluminum).

The European Commission has proposed an EU-wide ban on miniature toiletry bottles commonly found in hotel bathrooms.

Washington-based sustainable packaging company Palous Fiber Packaging (PFP) has launched new 4-cup carriers made with wheat straw pulp.

The company aims to provide an alternative to global supplies of milled wood or post-consumer recycled material, which it says are “deceptively marketed as being greener than other materials”.

The carriers will be made using fibre from harvested wheat crops, which is locally sourced and used as a moulding medium instead of being incinerated as agricultural waste.

WINE BOTTLE WEIGHS ONLY 50 GRAMS

The global packaging specialist ALPLA has added a PET wine bottle to its product range. The 0.75-litre bottle weighs just 50 grams – around eight times less than the alternative made of glass. The first white wine bottles belonging to the Wegenstein winery recently went into circulation in the Austrian wine market, making them part of the Europe-wide bottle-to-bottle loop. The sustainable solution reduces carbon consumption by 38 per cent compared to the glass alternative – and that's even without rPET content.

The Wella Company has introduced a redesigned and more sustainable version of its Welloxon Perfect salon color developer. This new product line was sustainably designed, from packaging, to formula, and transportation.
 
The new bottle design features an innovative multi-layer molding technology that replaces virgin plastic with up to 70% of post-consumer recycled plastic. The bottle is also designed to be 100% recyclable, except for the safety seal, in countries where a recycling system is established.